Damn that's disappointing news...And not so much cause we're losing Ericsson, but because we're gonna have to deal with more Smith. I just hope when Kronner comes back we give the nod to Ouellet over Smith for that last D spot.

(And here I was just saying that pairing DeKeyser with a good offensive defenseman might be magical.)

On the bright side (if you can call it that)...I haven't been overly impressed with Ericsson thus far. He's steady, reliable, a great veteran presence (especially on the PK), but he still makes his fair share of mistakes. And I dunno if we're really gonna miss his size all that much.

The Hockey Gods are doing all they can to earn DeKeyser a promotion. Maybe he really impresses on the top pairing and Ericsson returns a second-pairing guy. That might be good for our depth.

I'm reaching, I know.

Is this a joke?

Big Rig is second on the team in hits (30th among dmen), 5th in +/-, 5th in shot blocking, and he has been using his size a lot more...